Gia Lai reaps fruits in implementing ethnic policies

The Party and State’s ethnic policies have come to life in the Central
Highland province of Gia Lai , helping improve the living
standards of residents, especially those from ethnic minority inhabited
areas.

Automobile-accessible roads now run through
all communes and more than 80 percent of local households are connected
to the national electricity grid. All communes have at least one school
and a medical station.

This is the result of the
Government’s programme 135 on building infrastructure, with nearly 1.5
trillion VND (over 75 million USD) having been spent so far on schools,
roads, irrigation and water supply systems.

Meanwhile, under Programmes 132 and 134, nearly 12,000 households have
been allocated farming land and 227 families given housing land. More
than 26,000 poor ethnic minority households were provided with
preferential loans worth a total 157 billion VND (8.8 million USD) to
develop cultivation and animal breeding.

Gia Lai has
a population of more than 1.36 million, including over 600,000 ethnic
minority people, mainly of Bahnar and J’rai groups.

At a recent meeting with the Central Steering Committee for the Central
Highlands, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Labour,
Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Minh Tam said it is important to
increase loans to household living under or near the poverty line and at
the same time open more vocational courses for young people in rural
areas.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the local
Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thanh Binh said it is
necessary to reform the implementation of supporting policies for the
poor, saying that some measures, such as the distribution of free
essential goods including rice, salt and kerosene, may discourage the
beneficiaries’ self-help spirit.

Vietnam now has 130 policies targeting ethnic communities, according to the Committee for Ethnic Affairs.-VNA